It´s a bit strange this. On my irb: irb(main):053:0> p "\"hello\"" "\"hello\"" irb(main):049:0> h = '""hello""' => "\"\"hello\"\"" irb(main):044:0> string = "hello" => "hello" irb(main):046:0> %Q{#{string}} => "hello" irb(main):047:0> p string "hello" irb(main):048:0> puts "\"\"hello\"\"" ""hello"" I´m not pretty sure, but the last one it´s the only that seems to produce exactly what i was looking for... Because "\"\"hello\"\"" != ""hello"" right? or it is altough irb shows it in different ways? -- Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/.